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The Centre has added heatwave and lightning to the official list of notified disasters eligible for relief funding, taking the total from 12 to 14.
The move follows a recommendation of the 16th Finance Commission, which held that both hazards are large enough in scale to exceed the coping capacity of affected communities.
Notified status lets states draw on the main 80% relief component of the State Disaster Response Fund instead of being confined to the 10% window reserved for locally notified disasters.
It also unlocks the 20% State Disaster Mitigation Fund, which can be spent on longer-term climate-resilience infrastructure such as cooling shelters and lightning arresters.
India recorded 4,853 heatwave cases between March 2026 and the announcement, underlining the scale of the problem.
A 'notified disaster' is not a scientific classification — it is a financial one. Relief in India is paid out of the State Disaster Response Fund, which every state holds, topped up by the National Disaster Response Fund for severe events. The rulebook splits the SDRF: the bulk of it, 80%, can be spent only on disasters that appear on the Centre's notified list, while a separate 10% window lets a state respond to a 'local disaster' it notifies itself. Before this change, a state facing a deadly heat spell had to squeeze relief out of that narrow 10% window, and the money often ran out. Moving heatwave and lightning onto the main list changes the arithmetic entirely: states can now tap the 80% pool directly, without the procedural detours that delayed payouts, and can also draw on the 20% State Disaster Mitigation Fund for prevention rather than only for relief after the event.
Simple Analogy: It is the difference between paying for a hospital stay from your main insurance policy and paying for it from a small petty-cash tin — the illness is the same, but only one of them actually covers the bill.
The parent legislation for disaster response in India; it created the National Disaster Management Authority, the State Disaster Management Authorities and the statutory disaster response funds.
The primary fund from which state governments meet relief expenditure; the Centre and states contribute in a 75:25 ratio for general states and 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan states.
A central fund that supplements the SDRF when a disaster is severe enough to exhaust a state's own resources.
The 20% mitigation component that funds preventive and resilience work rather than post-event relief — now available for heat and lightning preparedness.
Chaired by Arvind Panagariya, it recommended notifying heatwaves and lightning as disasters — a reminder that Finance Commissions decide not just tax devolution but also disaster funding architecture.
The apex body under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, chaired ex-officio by the Prime Minister; it issues the heat action plan guidelines states will now fund from the mitigation window.
Recognising heat as a fundable disaster is an adaptation measure, connecting domestic disaster law to India's commitments under the UNFCCC framework.
The concentration of heatwave deaths in cities is what makes the mitigation fund significant — cooling shelters and green cover are urban interventions.
GS Paper 3 > Disaster and Disaster Management; GS Paper 2 > Finance Commission
General Awareness > Indian Polity and Schemes > Disaster Management
General Awareness > Current Affairs > Environment
General Awareness > Current Affairs > Government Policy
A hazard on the Centre's official list, making relief for it eligible for funding from the main 80% component of the State Disaster Response Fund.
The statutory fund from which states meet disaster relief expenditure, financed by the Centre and the state in a 75:25 ratio (90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan states).
The 20% component earmarked for preventive and resilience-building work rather than post-disaster relief.
A hazard a state notifies on its own authority, for which relief spending is capped at 10% of the SDRF.
A city or state-level preparedness plan setting out early warning, public advisories and cooling measures for heatwave seasons.